1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains in general to data visualization on a computer and, in particular, to ways of representing data obtained from web pages and other sources.
2. Description of the Related Art
The World Wide Web and other information storage and retrieval systems contain a great deal of information. With the advent of search engines and other similar tools it has become relatively easy for an end-user to locate particular information. For example, one can obtain a wealth of information about the atomic elements by simply searching for the terms “atomic elements” on the Web.
It is generally acknowledged that certain types of information are easier to comprehend when presented in some formats rather than in other formats. For example, an end-user might find it easier to understand the relationships between the atomic masses of the atomic elements if the masses are presented graphically instead of listed as numeric values. Similarly, trends in stock prices are easier to understand when the prices are presented on a graph rather than as a list of dates and prices.
Information on the web is not always in a format that is easy for the end-user to comprehend. A web site that describes the atomic elements might display the periodic table and provide information like the atomic weights, melting points, and densities of the elements, but the site is unlikely to provide a graph of, say, atomic weights versus melting points. As a result, a person who desires to view such a graph must manually copy the information into another program that provides graphing capabilities.
Some web sites, like sites providing stock prices and other financial information, provide limited amounts of dynamic content. For example, a person can interact with such sites to create and manipulate graphs showing stock prices over time. Even on these sites, however, the person is restricted to a limited set of graphing options. Further, there is no way for a person to graphically manipulate data contained on multiple web sites short of copying the desired information into separate graphing program.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a way to enable the end-user to organize and view structured information on web pages in a way that makes it easier to comprehend.